The US and five allied nations have joined a week-long air force partnership event to discuss the maintenance and operations of the F-16 Fighting Falcon in Bucharest, Romania.
The US Air Force in Europe-Air Forces Africa and the Romanian Air Force co-hosted the event, which was attended by service members from the US, Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, and Romania.
European Partnership Flight was held to bolster the F-16 aviation capacity of the allies with other nations and partners.
It aimed to “improve their ability to defend themselves, fully participate as operational partners, and improve their interoperability in support of US and NATO national security priorities.”
Representatives from the US included the 187th Fighter Wing, 162nd Fighter Wing, 31st Maintenance Group, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and the Air Force Security Assistance Training Squadron.
Multinational Interoperability Through F-16 Aircraft
During the event, the multinational forces covered topics involving different possibilities of interoperability through F-16 logistics and training.
The discussions also covered analysis of roles and coordination activities between the fourth generation aircraft’s operations, maintenance, and munition units.
“The F-16 is here for the long-run and brings new issues and additional challenges; it takes people, equipment, funding and a good balance between them all,” Romanian Air Force Training Manager Col. Vasile Petrea said.
The airmen also visited Romania’s Borcea Air Base, where a regional networking workshop was held. Borcea received its first F-16s from Portugal in 2016.
The visit also identified future training and exchange opportunities with the Eastern European F-16 community.
“This is an opportunity to come together and bring more capability to the alliance,” former F-16 pilot and US Embassy Bucharest Defense Attaché Col. Keith Derbenwick said. “The F-16 platform is all about community.”
